Stay on target

Serve the public trust, protect the innocent, uphold the law: Chinese robot police officers are using facial recognition to catch criminals.

The new E-Patrol Robot Sheriff recently rolled into the Zhengzhou East Railway Station in Henan, where it monitors air quality and temperature and apprehends bad guys.

According to a translated report by the Zhengzhou Evening News, these RoboCops will supplement the human night patrol, helping to save police officers’ “valuable time” and keep a digital eye on passengers.

Standing at just five feet tall, the stocky cyborgs move autonomously via a system of built-in cameras, Mashable said, citing China’s Economic Daily. On duty at the train station since Feb. 12, the machine spotted a small fire on its first day.

Little else is known about the E-Patrol, which debuted just a few months after the AnBot (“An” meaning “security” in Chinese)—China’s first smart security service robot in operation at Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport since September.

Cruising around Terminal 3, the intelligent security robot was built for the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau by the National University of Defense Technology and Hunan Wanwei Intelligent Robot Technology Co. Similar in stature to the E-Patrol Sheriff, AnBot travels at a maximum speed of 11 miles per hour. Boasting a battery life of eight hours, the intelligent machine knows when to recharge, and automatically finds the nearest juicing station.

While advanced androids protect and serve in China, roving robots are delivering food to hungry Americans: Starship last month partnered with DoorDash to test food distribution in Washington, D.C., and Redwood City, Calif. Starship is also teaming up with Postmates, the “revolutionary Urban Logistics platform” that, for the last five years, has been distributing virtually anything from stores and restaurants in 26 states.